BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS
The Elements by John Boyne
Thank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.
MY BOOK BEGINNING
The first thing I do when I arrive on the island is change my name.
-- from The Elements by John Boyne.
Well, that's a terrific opening sentence! Boyne knows how to spin a yarn.
I've only read one book by John Boyne, A Ladder to the Sky. It was a well-executed and gripping story, but it left me cold. It has the same casual amorality that bothers me about Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley books. I like an anti-hero who is a grumpy curmudgeon, like Jackson Lamb in the Slow Horses books, but not an anti-hero who is an unrepentant, unconvicted, murderer.
That explains why I have not been quick to pick up another Boyne book. But he has so many! I need to give him another chance. I was happy, for that reason, to get an ARC of his new book, The Elements from Henry Holt & Company. The Elements launches on September 9, 2025.
The Elements brings together the stories of four people -- a mother seeking a new life, a young man on trial for sexual assault, a surgeon hobbled by past trauma, and a father trying to connect with his teenage son. Interestingly, the four stories were published as four separate books, Water (2023), Earth (2024), Fire (2024), and Air (2025). The Elements is an omnibus edition containing all four.
I much prefer the UK cover to the American cover above. This is the UK cover. What do you think?
YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS
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THE FRIDAY 56
Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.
MY FRIDAY 56
-- from The Elements:
I kept busy with the trappings of being an affluent, middle-class woman in South Dublin. I arranged spa days with my friends, had regular appointments with my hairdresser, became -- for a time -- obsessed with Bikram yoga.
FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION
In The Elements, acclaimed Irish novelist John Boyne has created an epic saga that weaves together four interconnected narratives, each representing a different perspective on crime: the enabler, the accomplice, the perpetrator, and the victim.
The narrative follows a mother on the run from her past, a young soccer star facing a trial, a successful surgeon grappling with childhood trauma, and a father on a transformative journey with his son. Each is somehow connected to the next, and as the story unfolds, their lives intersect in unimaginable ways.
Boyne’s most ambitious work yet, The Elements is both an engrossing drama and a moving investigation of why and how we allow crime to occur.
The Elements sounds like it could be right up my alley! I'm going to add this to my wishlist, thank you! And to your question about the cover, I'm with you. I often prefer book covers featured in other countries to those released in the USA.
ReplyDeleteI've only read one John Boyne book, The Heart's Invisible Furies, and I struggled with it, thought I need finally come around and liked it fine. I have Water on my TBR but now I wonder if I should pay attention to which of the elements was supposed to be first.
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